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Bill Maher And Presentism
Why Maher is both right and wrong about societal maturity
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What is presentism?
Maher makes the analogy of how we are stupid as kids. We take huge risks. We say dumb things. We can’t believe our earlier selves.
Like maturing “us”, society and culture are supposed to mature.
Presentism is applying the rules of the present, to the complex prejudices of the past. As if we were there. And we would know better.
But history doesn’t work that way. There is not a trajectory of forward-thinking “right.” As with human brains, some people are not even certain that as a society we have free will.
If not, how do we have a choice to end slavery, or let women vote?
Personally, I think there is a social-environmental change that affects our behavior over time, just as with biological natural selection.
Presentism and the woke mob
Given our accepted normalcy of past atrocity, we can demonstrate that we are somewhat hopeless at maturity.